Bowman Busy Man in Saturday’s Rosehill Race Card

Once we were certain that Hugh Bowman would not have to ride Performer, the horse that inexplicably dumped him earlier in the month, we were able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Bowman will be on Performer for the seventh race Group 1 Golden Slipper Stakes at the Saturday meeting at Rosehill, after riding Winx in race five, the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes.

Bowman will ride Isaurian forJames Cummings in the first race. He will mount Michael Kent’s Consommateur in the Group 3 Mounties 50th Birthday Epona Stakes, followed by Prized Icon for Kris Lees in the Group 1 Ranvet Stakes.

Next comes the ride on Waller’s Winx, so Bowman could have two pretty good shots at Group 1 victories by the halfway point, pardon our rough math, of the nine-race meeting. Prized Icon is third favourite, albeit a distant third, quoted at $10, behindGailo Chop at $1.80 and Single Gaze at $7.

Bowman will have another shot a Group 1 glory in race 6, when he rides another Chris Waller horse, D’Argento, in the Group 1 Rosehill Guineas.

Race 7 will be for Waller on Performer, but Bowman still has work to do, riding the Kris Lees trained Le Romain in the Group 1 Galaxy Stakes. Le Romain has drifted from $19 when the markets opened to a current price of $26. Only Lady Esprit ($41) and Takedown ($61) carry longer odds, somewhat surprising given that Le Romain is a multiple Group 1 winner, but his recent form suggests that his best racing in behind him following a second-last finish in the Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes in September 2017.

Bowman concludes the meeting with a ride on Matthew Smith’s Faraway Town in the Group 3 Birthday Card Stakes.

Assuming that he makes it through all eight of his engagements, Bowman will have covered 12,100 metres of Rosehill turf, so he might be due for a little paddock time of his own.